微生物的粘附和运输受到其疏水性的显著影响。各种领域,例如生物污染,生物修复,废水处理,采油,发病机制,植入物感染,和其他几个微生物学科,利用疏水性评估。用于评估微生物表面疏水性的一种容易的测定是微生物对碳氢化合物的粘附(MATH)测试,其作用于微生物在碳氢化合物-水界面处的差异分配。不幸的是,此测试的标准协议仍然不可用,尽管它已经被广泛研究,并且已知结果对所使用的操作参数敏感。这项研究已被设想为研究MATH测试参数的变化对疏水性结果的影响。为此,六个不同的测试参数(涡流持续时间,相分离周期,烃-水相体积比,碳氢化合物选择,吸收波长,和悬浮介质)变化。四种不同的革兰氏阴性细菌用于实验。据观察,除了相分离期,所有其他测试参数显着影响疏水性结果。此外,悬浮介质的烃饱和度是生长介质悬浮的关键因素。这项研究有望指导研究人员为MATH测试选择合适的测试参数值,并增强我们对该技术的理解,并为开发标准化协议铺平道路。
Microbial adhesion and transport are significantly influenced by their hydrophobicity. Various domains, such as biofouling, bioremediation, wastewater treatment, oil recovery, pathogenesis, implant infections, and several other microbial disciplines, make use of hydrophobicity assessment. One easy assay for assessing the microbial surface hydrophobicity is the microbial adhesion to hydrocarbons (MATH) test which works on the differential partitioning of microbes at a hydrocarbon-aqueous interface. Unfortunately, a standard protocol for this test is still unavailable, even though it has been widely studied and it is known that the results are sensitive to the operating parameters used. This study has been envisaged to investigate the effects of variations in the MATH test parameters on the hydrophobicity results. For this purpose, six different test parameters (vortex duration, phase separation period, hydrocarbon-aqueous phase volume ratio, hydrocarbon selection, absorbance wavelength, and suspension medium) were varied. Four different Gram-negative bacteria were used for experimentation. It was observed that except for phase separation period, all other test parameters significantly influenced the hydrophobicity results. Furthermore, the hydrocarbon saturation of the suspension medium was a critical factor for growth medium suspensions. This study is expected to guide researchers in selecting the appropriate values of test parameters for MATH tests and enhance our understanding of this technique and pave the way for developing a standardized protocol.